"Attacks against the press are an enormous political irresponsibility": Article 19

For Maldonado, throw attacks Y stigmatize to those who exercise the right to freedom of expression only increases the risk for the work of these professionals.

“His speech generates that other political actors replicate his attacks. These actors feel empowered and allowed to attack in the face of a narrative that presents the press as an adversary. We are in a war speech, where the enemy must be annihilated, ”he said.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to be journalist. According to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in the World Press Freedom IndexMexico is in 143rd place out of 180 countries.

From 2000 to date, Article 19 has documented 149 murders of journalists in Mexico, possibly related to their work. Of the total, 137 are men and 12 are women.

Of these, 47 were recorded during the previous term of the president Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) and 29 in the current Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024).

In accordance with Sign Labinterdisciplinary laboratory of the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESO), from 2010 to 2021 1,200 attacks against women communicators have been registered.

But in the last three years (from 2018 to 2021), they have detected 769 cases of siegethreats and attacks against journalists, which represents more than 64 percent of the cases compared to the same previous period.

For Maldonado, journalists not only suffer from stigmatizations that the president launches against the press, they are also the object of attacks on their social networks, especially from those who defend the so-called fourth transformation, the political project promoted by López Obrador.

During the first half of 2021, Article 19 documented 362 attacks against journalists and the media, and the State is the main aggressor against the press with 134 attacks

Part of the attacks suffered by journalists They are death threats, intimidation, harassment, physical attacks and news blackouts.

improve conditions

For Jade Ramírez Cuevas, a member of the Walking Journalists NetworkLópez Obrador's statements "affect journalists" because they add to the risk that practicing this profession already entailed in Mexico.

“The conditions of risk and vulnerability They come from other six-year terms. Although his statements do generate a feeling of discredit towards the work of the journalists”, he pointed.

He pointed out that it is important to divert the conversation towards the causes of violence against the press: “Inquire into the state governments, who are the mafias that are, for example, in Salina Cruz, Oaxacato the prosecutors, to demand that the human rights commissions do their job,” he said.

EFE